Special Guest Pilates Instructors at Healthy Options

Lynne Gentle

Lynne has been practising Pilates since 1996, and loved how it restored her strength and lost power following childbirth. At the time she had a successful career in London but her epiphany came and she began to train as a Pilates teacher on the side of her regular job. She set up her Harley Street practice ‘Gentle Movement Clinic’ in 2010, and has since been teaching people to treat themselves.

She describes herself as a Manual and Movement therapist, and has been helping people to feel good, teaching them to get rid of aches and pains, and restore natural, balanced posture since 2004. Her work is not exercise, but movement, and is a firm believer that if you move well, you move often. The benefits of this are multiple… therapy, healing, wellness and injury prevention. Lynne also practises musculoskeletal acupuncture, and specialises in anti ageing of the face and body.

At Healthy Options, Lynne will be leading special Yamuna Body Rolling taster sessions. What is Yamuna, we hear you say. Well, it’s a cross between foam rolling and rolling on a tennis ball, working to realign the body, self massage, and give you a workout all in one. Working with a special ball roughly the size of a honeydew melon, you use your body weight and breath to roll slowly, deep into your muscles and ligaments. Going deeper than a foam roller, it works into the joints and re-establishes the body’s connection with itself, releasing trigger points, aligning the joints and stimulating the body which is both energising and relaxing. So who can do it? Well, if you can sit on the floor, you can do Yamuna body rolling – all you need is a mat, the ball and the floor!

If you want to find out more, be sure to sign up to one of Lynne’s sessions whilst you are here, she will focus on the hamstrings and spine. In the meantime visit YamunaUSA.com and her Facebook page ‘Gentle Movement’ for more information.

We also asked Lynne what makes Vassiliki so special. It’s her first experience of Healthy Options and she has fallen for the people. “Everyone is super friendly, it’s like one big family. And it’s just so accessible too. The quality and the expertise of the people is second to none. I’m already looking forward to coming back next year.”

Pilates and Body Movement Classes at Syvota with Georgie Ferraro

We are so happy to introduce Georgie Ferraro as our Pilates and Body Movement teacher at our new Healthy Options in Sivota. Georgie has been teaching Pilates for 17 years, and her approach to teaching is informed by her studies of Gyrokinesis, the Franklin Method, Hanna’s Somatics, the Alexander technique and Feldenkrais, so we really can’t wait to experience her classes.

To whet your appetites, here’s a little overview of what Body Movement is. In one sentence, it’s about ‘Re-awakening the mind’s control of movement, releasing unnecessary tension and finding the true flexibility and ease within the body’. Tension is the body’s enemy and is responsible for much of the pain we experience. Through developing awareness of your movement and learning to relax tight muscles, we can actually teach ourselves how to disperse tension and restore function.

Sounds good, doesn’t it, but how can we achieve this? Georgie will lead her pupils through an hour of exploring our moving bodies, drawing on a whole range of techniques including experiential anatomy, imagery and improvisation, ball rolling, release techniques and working with the breath. The resulting class is restorative and energising, and will be particularly helpful for those dealing with ongoing aches and pains.